In today’s environment, working from home has become more than a privilege. For many, it’s become a necessity. We’ve assembled some of the best tips to help you be the best worker you can be from the comfort of home sweet home.
Our favorite tips for working from home (tested by real people who are currently WFH):
1| Set Boundaries & Get Organized
Forbes suggests setting clear boundaries so your WFH day feels a lot like a normal day at the office. Set a clear start and end time for your workday, and plan out your tasks and breaks ahead of time to help keep time spent on different tasks in check.
Pro tip: If your workplace doesn’t already use a time/workload management platform, we recommend looking into Asana or Trello, both free tools that could help you organize and prioritize tasks. Oh! And you get to check off a box when you’re done with the task… hello instant gratification! At MMH, we’ve been using Asana for a few years to a great degree of success. That’s how we plan all your beautiful logo projects, monthly SEO blog articles, and web projects!
2| Connect When You Can
Working from home can feel extremely isolating, especially if you’re used to hustling in a bustling space with lots of people. Fight that feeling of loneliness by keeping your workplace chat on and making sure your coworkers know you’re reachable via email and phone. Some great platforms for this include Whatsapp, Google Chat, and Skype.
Pro tip: Not digging Zoom? If you only need to chat with a few people at a time and don’t need your meeting recorded, we recommend giving Whereby.com a try! We use it all the time for both internal and client meetings. You don’t need to download anything and you can have video calls, voice only, and share screens. Best part? It’s free!
3| Close the Door
We mean this figuratively. Make room for your workspace away from other types of spaces. Don’t put a desk right by your bed or work at your kitchen counter. Shared spaces can divide your attention, so find a dedicated workspace for optimal focus!
Pro tip: Do you have kids in the home or maybe a bored partner that wants to show you YouTube clips every 15 minutes? Put a little sign on the door of the room where you’re working letting the other family members know whether it’s okay or not to interrupt. You can write things like “Super busy, emergencies only”, “On a video call… no noise, please!”, “Busy, but come in if you need me”, and “Come hang out!” and use a clothes pin to let everyone know what you need.
Dogs don’t have to abide by the “don’t bother me while I’m working” rule… they’re always welcomed!
4| Turn off (Some) Notifications
Social media notifications and news stories will be blowing up your phone all day, so use your phone’s notifications preferences smartly. Our team opts to turn off personal Instagram and Twitter notifications during the workday.
Pro tip: Schedule little breaks throughout the day specifically to check your phone for important personal messages or notifications. Give yourself only a few minutes so you don’t get carried away crafting a super long reply that will completely steel your focus from work. Doing this will still let you keep a pulse on what’s going on, but won’t take over your day.
Pro tip #2: It’s okay to not answer right away or let people know that you’ll give them more thorough answers later. Some people may have more free time on their hands right now and might assume that everyone is going through the same. If someone is messaging you constantly and expecting prompt answers, kindly let them know that you’re in the middle of something and will be happy to chat more later.
5| Save Calls for the Afternoon
It’s often said that you’ll feel more productive if you focus on faster, easier-to-complete projects in the morning, and then let that momentum and feeling of satisfaction roll you through the afternoon. That same feeling will help you stay energized for calls later in the day.
Pro tip: If it’s the first time you’ll be talking to someone since Covid-19 escalated, make sure to plan on a call that’s a little bit a few minutes longer than your normal calls with that person. Chances are that both you and them will want to know how the other one is doing. We also recommend putting together a simple outline of the points you want to hit during the call so you can make sure to stay on track and not let current events completely sidetrack you.
Don’t be too hard on yourself and set realistic goals. It might be a bit of a struggle at first, but you’ll see that before you know it, you’ll find your rhythm!
6| Listen to Music
This is our favorite among our tips for working from home! Since you’re in your own space, you can listen to whatever you want … out loud. Some of our favorite workday Spotify playlists include the Feel Good Indie Rock and Morning Motivation playlists, but Spotify now has all sorts of playlists specifically for working from home so make sure to check those out too! Note that a few of the songs on both of these playlists are marked “explicit,” so you might not want to pump these tunes too loud around kiddos.
Pro tip: Soundtracks make amazing working music! The Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, and John Williams’ Greatest soundtrack playlists are among our weekly rotation.
We know that the recent outbreak of COVID-19 has impacted small businesses in countless ways and made effective communication essential. Let us know if there’s anything we can do to help you get the right marketing messages out to your customers or even if you just need someone to help you brainstorm how to continue to operate your business in a safe way. We’re here for you!